From the ground
You can learn a lot standing at the far side of the road with a pair of binoculars.
- Slates or tiles visibly slipped, missing or sitting crooked.
- A dip or wave along the ridge line, or sagging between rafters.
- Mortar missing from the ridge and hips, or ridge tiles rocking in wind.
- Moss and vegetation growing thickly enough to hold water on the covering.
- Perished felt hanging down at the eaves behind the gutter.
From the attic
Pick a bright day and go up with a torch anyway — you want to see daylight where it should not be.
- Daylight visible through the roof covering.
- Damp stains, black mould or wet insulation.
- Sarking felt torn, brittle or disintegrating when touched.
- Timbers that are soft, dark or crumbling around the eaves.
From your own history
The tenth sign is the one people ignore: you are ringing a roofer every year. If small repairs have become an annual expense and the roof is at or past its expected life, you are effectively paying for a new roof in instalments without ever getting one.
What to do next
Two or three of these together is worth a proper inspection. It does not automatically mean replacement — plenty of roofs we look at need a repair and nothing more, and we will tell you that.
Related pages: roof replacement in Dublin or roof repairs in Dublin.